Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When I was a child we thought God was White.We spoke of it often and the conclusion was always that God was no colour.We had to make Him colourless if we were to pursue Him – if we too must be blessed, rich or have anything good.He had to be colourless because if He were White the reasons we suffered under White rule would make sense and we would be hopeless.If He were White our surfering would endure forever.We said that but we still believed He had to be White.He was because if He were not, then we would not suffer.Has He not blessed them and cursed us?I had to believe He was colourless and that we had missed something.Why we hungered? Why we were cornered? Why our land was now taken?Why our money was so little? Why we did not have this and why they had that?God must be White.I believed against hope that He is not.If He is not then He will hear me.As an older child I saw things change.I saw a black old man rise. I saw crowds lift their fits as they saw him. I saw black hands. Then I saw white fists slowly but surely raising their fists too as though in worship of this old black man. This old black man.God is not White?Were we right?Others began to suffer less, others prospered, others being non-white but then the rest of the continent still suffered. This dark skin still suffered in every country of this continent.I wondered had we not prayed enough, how much must we do till He hears us.Aids came and they called us immoral, promiscuous and every name under heaven, forgetting that they gave us Aids the minute they landed and violeted us killing our spirits so that we would not taste freedom even when it was given us.There you have it more evidence, even when you are meant to be blessed you are cursed.It hit me again. Was He really White?Then one day He opened my eyes.Colour is not His primary thing, humanity is shallow.Then I realised that long before anyone came from any continent, long before anyone took anybody’s land. Long before anyone raped anyone and enslaved them in their own backyard, we had everything we needed but we gave it all away. We thought we were waiting for Him but He was always waiting for us.He had given us too much power already and would not disempower us by medling. He wanted us to rise. He believed in us. He wanted us to rise not against White power or any colour power but against darkness that distroys humanity in one form or another.We had to rise; not He.Until we got that we were powerless, sitting and waiting. Until we knew our power in Him, until we took up our weapons given to us long before but we had forgotten how.The key that was lost in Eden was a key for our rule not over each other. He waited for us to find our key again.He waits for us to rise to take up our weapons and distroy the enemies of the soul. The enemy that fights against humanity will not come from heaven because heaven already came down to give the power back to us.However it was the day that Obama became the president of America that I knew without a doubt that God never was White.He waits for time. He waits for us to come to know the power we have been given.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Honourable President of the Republic of the most beautiful land and the most beautiful people of South Africa:

Honourable President Jacob Zuma the recent reports about your love child have not been honourable, however this is not how I wish to begin my letter to you sir. Please forgive my poor vocabulary it is an easy give away that I am in no way a member of any youth league.

I love South Africa with all my heart. I love our diversity. I love who we are, what we have become and what we are destined to become. I also know that Mr. Jacob Zuma that you would not be sitting in office at this moment had you not loved this land with a deep passion yourself. I see you Mr. President as a man who has a gift to overcome, you are a victor, victories not all of us approve of but none-the-less you have that gift in you. You are a reconciler and that I truly admire about you. Our country can grow in unique ways under your leadership if you will rise up to it. I love the manner, in which you embrace the poor of our country, when I look at you I can see why they would believe that you are their champion. I did not vote for you mainly because of your links to corruption and your relations with women that are unsettling to me as a woman and as a citizen of this beautiful land. I do not take for granted all that you have sacrificed to serve the people of this land and believe me Mr. President I pray for you, many people I know pray that you would become a successful president of the republic of South Africa.

The reason I am writing this letter to you Mr. Jacob Zuma is thus in no means to tear you down, I believe you are so much more than what you are giving us right now. I have been extremely angered by the recent news of your baby with Dr. Khoza’s daughter. I am hurt, disturbed and have nearly cried because having not voted for you Mr. President I chose to withhold judgment from you and I wrote to many of my friends to do the same so that you can lead without those nagging voices that tell you what you have done wrong in the past before you even make your first move as president. I wiped the slate clean and I decided that I would support you and encouraged many to do so. These recent news sir have hurt those efforts immensely. The best way I can describe is that I felt betrayed as a citizen of South Africa by your actions. If this is a personal matter as many of the members of the ANC claim then tell me Mr. President then why is the nation hurting and in an uproar about your actions. I wish that for once, just for once that the leaders of this nation would lead without shifting blame the whole time. This nation would fly if we can just get that one thing right.

To add to this Mr. President many of my friends and myself work with the youth of this nation and in many instances the youth of Africa we encourage them to live upright lives. We are devastated by the impact of HIV/AIDs has on our youth and we want to do whatever is within our means to reverse this and the best way we know how is to mentor well, live by example and give our young people life skills that will empower them to teach others and live full lives that are free of AIDs. I am afraid to say this to you Mr. President but your behavior up till now is unsupportive of our efforts and the worst fear is that the youth will look at your behavior and see how the ANCYL justifies your behavior and die in the hands of yours and their deception.Mr. President when I first heard this I was too shocked and too hurt to respond. The next moment I thought you Mr. President are not fit to govern our land as the one thing that is destroying our land is sexual promiscuity which has landed us in this mess in the first place. I refuse to be diplomatic about this fact. It is the truth as even those who have been raped have been defiled by those who live like that. President Mbeki was recalled as the President of this land for reasons which are still unbeknown to me; I am certain there is no reason that such can not be done to you as well, for reasons that are known by the whole country. I also thought that if you love our country truly and truly know that we cannot be seen as a nation that does not care about HIV/AIDS then Mr. Jacob Zuma you will step down to demonstrate that.

One more thing Mr. President the press has every reason to make a big deal about this as the responsible thing to do would have been for you to announce these news to the nation yourself. If you had any remorse before the press came any where near it by now Mr. President you should have been brilliant at handling such matters by now. Your not having come out with this yourself shows that you wanted to sweep this under the carpet which is even more concerning than the original offense.

I write this letter in full respect of your office and your role in our country. If you still think that you are fit to govern us Mr. Zuma then we deserve much better than this. I believe we can be much better and you have no reason not to be much better than this. Isn’t our country all about becoming our best selves out-doing what is expected not going even below the bare minimum. If you believe that you are fit to govern then we need you to inspire that greatness in us and not our worst sir.

I write this in my own capacity as the youth of South Africa and I have support from other young people in South Africa to write this letter to you. I do not belong to any political party and have no such ambitions. I am however fully interested in taking responsibility for our country and ensure that I do so in service to God and the country in the capacity I believe I have been blessed with.

Yours for the good of South AfricaSiki DlangaWritten in my own capacity

Please note that none of the views expressed here are meant to be prideful or arrogant in anyway but in a genuine concern for the president, the nation and mainly the implications these recent developments can have on the youth. I am humbled and honoured that you are an approachable president that will consider this letter from an ordinary citizen.